PAS pushed for the Felda vote, but didn’t get past the kitchen

PAS pushed for the Felda vote, but didn’t get past the kitchen

In
2011, Mazlan Aliman (pic) received the most votes to be a PAS central
committee member because the Islamist party believed his strategy to get
Felda votes would win Putrajaya for Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The boy who started out as a PAS party worker in 1985 putting up
posters was now the president of Persatuan Anak-Anak Peneroka Felda
Kebangsaan (Anak) - children of settlers who were the backbone of rural
support for Umno.

Over the years, Mazlan and his friends had raised various issues about
life in the Federal Land Development (Felda) settlements since Anak was
formed in 2007. And they protested the public listing of a Felda unit as
that would dilute the settlers' ownership of the settlements.

PAS believed these issues would help them unseat Umno and Barisan
Nasional (BN) in 54 federal and 94 state seats where Felda settlements
could be found. After all, the Islamist party had branches in 75 percent
of the Felda settlements.

But PAS failed, losing in almost all the seats where Felda settlers formed a majority of voters in Election 2013.

What went wrong?
Now almost 100 days after the May 5 polls, Mazlan and a few PAS members
in the Felda settlements blamed their failure on BN's racial and
financial campaign that cost them the key women's vote.
“The general election was important in penetrating Felda areas because
BN used an all-out racial and financial benefits campaign to maintain
their fixed deposit,” Mazlan told The Malaysian Insider.
He said PAS party workers campaigned hard for the party candidates but could not get past the kitchen door.
The Felda womenfolk, he said, stayed at home and were not exposed to
PAS political programmes but instead, were influenced by the
BN-controlled media and Felda-sponsored events.
“In Felda, everything is under control. Every area has a village head.
Every 20 houses has a chief, assistant chief and committee members.

“At the higher levels, there is a Felda manager, assistant and officers
who control every settlers and their families’ movement.

“It is different from traditional villages, what more the town areas,”
Mazlan said, offering a slice of life in the settlements and the
difficulties involved in meeting and influencing the settlers.

The stakes were also higher in the last election, he said, adding BN
used racial issues and money to good effect to counter the PAS strategy
of raising issues about the settlements.

“Imagine Puteri Umno and women’s wing went to the settlers' homes to
give out rice with a special message... this is rice, keep the rice
properly, when the Chinese rules Malaysia, we would have rice shortage,”
Mazlan related what an Anak committee member had told him.

He said BN had reinforced that campaign strategy with pamphlets, CDs,
briefings and money, adding it was made easier by the ruling
government's links within Felda.

He said the settlers believed that the DAP would be the party governing
Malaysia if PR won the elections because they were not aware that it
only contested in 45 out of the 222 parliamentary seats.
Although PAS tried to counter the Umno campaign, party critics said it
appeared that the Islamist party did not push enough to explain PR's
alliance and DAP's tiny fraction of the seat distribution.

But the PAS explanation worked in Temerloh, said lawyer and local son Abdullah Karim.

“I returned to Temerloh four days before the elections. When I was
giving ceramahs, I would explain that the BN campaign was a lie and
asked how were the Chinese going to rule Malaysia if they are only 35
percent and DAP only contested 45 out of the 222 parliamentary seats,”
he told The Malaysian Insider.

As a result, PAS won Temerloh although there were several Felda areas there.

Mazlan said the Election 2013 campaign revealed that when issues were
not explained properly in Felda areas, the settlers would not give PAS
their votes because they feared the Chinese would rule Malaysia.

“Felda settlers are not so educated and so they are easily influenced
by such campaign. What more, with the money paid to Felda of about
RM15,000 each family,” he added.

He also pointed out that BN had influenced the second-generation
settlers by using Anak’s approach of asking for a house within the
settlements.

“BN came and made show houses for the second generation settlers. If they wanted the house, they must ensure BN wins.
"This was a very effective campaign,” said Mazlan, adding it worked for the newly-weds and those between the ages of 30 to 50.

Planning
After a post-election analysis, Mazlan and his friends have now
finalised some plans for the next five years before the next general
election.

“We will first register Anak as a company, so that Anak would not be
accused again of being an illegal association," he said, referring to
the Umno campaign during Election 2013.

And PAS would have to set up more branches in Felda plantations to get better results, he added.
“The Felda areas with branches and substantial number of members made good achievements during the last election.

“For example, Felda Lurah Bilut had 41 percent voters supporting us
even though it had a DAP candidate because we had a branch and many PAS
members. It was also similar in Kerteh, Terengganu,” said Mazlan.

He said this meant PAS members would have to work harder to garner more
support for PR in Felda areas and to strengthen PAS's position.

“PAS will be stronger if more branches are opened, more members are recruited and more programmes held in stages.